Why play games as a designer?

iamseph,

I'm curious if this was meant as a blog entry or if you were looking for a dialogue.

As a designer, I don't think that I would trust the designs of someone who doesn't play games. You're formed naturally by your experiences, and limiting those experiences could only limit your design potential. I've heard that Reiner Knizia doesn't play other designer's games...I've played a few of his games, only once, and it's evident to me that he doesn't play other designer's games. To me, they're boring and quite dry.

Personally, I want to play gamrs, heavy in theme with clever mechanics. I've never played a game like that by a designer who doesn't play games.

Cheers,
Joe

It's interesting that you have had things deleted. Okay...good to know

I'm pretty sure I know which thread you're referring to and that is NOT what happened.

Just wanted to re-assure you that no posts have been deleted from that thread. The Admins are rather busy and do not have the time to neither read the posts and let alone delete them.

BGDF's policy is NOT to delete posts with relevant content.

There is no censorship of any kind on BGDF... At most, the entire thread would be locked.

The only exception to the rule is what you as the OP does. OPs have the ability to delete the entire thread. Not individual posts. So if there is a thread missing, it's because the author of that thread decided to delete it him/herself.

If my memory serves me right this was some SPAM for a Chinese Casino... Yeah that stuff we deleted.

But nobody went into specific post topics to delete any of the content.

Unless we have some kind of indexing problem - which I *seriously* doubt, no messages were deleted. The procedure for deleting content is like this:

As a Moderator, I would have to REQUEST that either Rich (richdurham), Winston (Mindspike) or Seth (sedjtroll) have to intervene to delete specific threads.

This has happened on a couple of occasions when we've gotten garbage like a bot posting a bunch of threads or some simple SPAMMING. Otherwise nobody has the right to delete comments in threads (besides the above admins).

As Rich can tell you the Official Position of this website is NOT to delete content. Unless it's like accidental double posts where the user says: "Double post!", etc.

If you don't believe me - you can take up the matter with the Admins.

Cheers.

Looks like Tablet PC Integration is *HOT* like in Golem Arcana. Their micro-dot technology is probably patented - and we won't see any one using it for the next 10 years - but the Table PC Integration, maybe done some other way, could be an interesting option for games.

I've just learned about "Fate of the Norns" (http://www.fateofthenorns.com) which is a rich story-telling Viking "game"... It's a blend between a "board game" and an RPG with a rich texture in Viking folklore. I'm not sure if it's pure fiction or actually some basis in Norwegian story-telling... That's just my latest game introduction... Kinda wish I could give more "meat" about the game - but I did not get the chance to speak with the author of the game - because he was busy doing demos and so was I...

But it seemed pretty "original" as a "game idea/concept"...

Update: About Tablet PC Integration - I have been thinking about a "Chaotic TCG" idea = having Chaotic Codes as part of your cards. And then you punch in those alphanumeric codes into the Tablet PC... And your game registers the card. Obviously you would REQUIRE the Physical card to play it... And the APP needs to refresh itself with DATA for expandable sets/editions.

It would be a very simple form of Tablet PC Integration... But it could blend "genres" together... Like instead of having a phone App, if you had a Tablet PC (or iPad) you could definitely design an App that could interact with cards with "Chaotic Codes".

You don't need Micro-dot technology in this instance. All you need is to print alphanumeric numbers which are unique and then you don't need the fancy light pen or bluetooth technology ... all you do is type in the alphanumeric code. If you use a "caching" system, you can have something like "List of All card currently in-play" and then you can just click on the card instead of re-typing the code...

Would be possible to completely circumvent the Patented "Micro-dot" technology using something like this...

Update #2: Fundamentally the patented "Micro-dot" technology is probably just a number too... but it's encoded into the printing process... So we can just skip the encoding and print numbers ... and have Tablet PC Integration FREE...

Money can be an issue however, board games are quite expensive so that can limit the amount of games you get to play unless you have friends who are also into it.

But of course its always possible to play some games similar to the kind of game you'd like to make. I think that playing two similar games to what you intend to do is the minimum. That way you'd already get to see two different approaches to a similar thing and that can make you think about what parts you prefer and why.

There's a fundamental misunderstanding of what "doesn't play games" means which leads to the harsh reactions the statement tends to get.

Most designers who "Don't play Games" have played enough games in their lifetime to hold a strong base knowledge, enough design experience to understand players and they stay informed enough through other means that they aren't blind to modern trends and concepts.

More importantly, me identifying as "Not really playing games" doesn't mean I never ever play games... but that I generally prefer to spend my free time doing other things or just lack the free time.

Once you've played a dozen deckbuilders, you don't need to play every one released to understand the genre. It's a waste of time to spend thousands of hours "Researching" something you already know.

You don't start from scratch with every new game you play... you're building on what you've already seen before. This brings to me the games I do play.

- - -

I watch ALOT of people playing games (Far more than I play). What I'm looking for is anything that makes me CURIOUS. Just something that makes this experience different than all other games I've played.

I'm not talking about being purely unique, but an interesting twist on common mechanics, strange combinations, or sometimes just player's acting funny.

If there's anything that I don't recognize or doesn't fit my expectations... I'll generally look to play a game at least once or twice (And the occasional 30+ times)

The other exception is when someone -specifically- tells me to try something. I try to always play recommended games especially if I'm not spending my own money on it.

I own over a thousand games. I've spent MANY years playing games. But this means that very little surprises me and explains why generally I'd rather curl up with a good book or movie than play farming euro #703.